Notifications & Email Preferences
Use the in-app notifications inbox and configure which emails VitalSentinel sends you, with tips for keeping your alert volume manageable.
VitalSentinel keeps you informed in two places: the in-app notifications inbox and your email preferences. This page covers both.
In-App Notifications Inbox
The notifications inbox lives at /dashboard/notifications and is accessible from the bell icon in the top navigation bar. Anything that needs your attention - alert triggers, billing events, system announcements, welcome messages - lands here.
Notification Types
| Type | What it means |
|---|---|
| Alert | An alert rule you configured has triggered |
| System | Operational status, planned maintenance, or other system events |
| Announcement | New features and product updates |
| Billing | Subscription, payment, and plan changes |
| Welcome | Onboarding messages when you join |
Severities
Each notification carries a severity that controls its color:
- Info - general information, no action required
- Success - something completed successfully
- Warning - something that may need attention
- Critical - something that needs attention now
Tabs
The inbox has two tabs:
- Unread (default) - only items you haven't read yet
- All - everything, including read items
Grouping
You can switch the display between a flat list and one grouped by domain. Grouping is useful if you manage many domains and want to see at a glance which sites have outstanding notifications.
Marking as Read
- Click any notification to open its details. It's marked as read automatically.
- Use the envelope icon to Mark as read without opening, or to Mark as unread afterwards.
- Use Mark all read to clear the unread count in one action.
Deleting
Delete individual notifications you no longer need with the trash icon. Deleted notifications cannot be recovered.
Unread Count Badge
The bell icon in the top navigation bar shows a badge with your unread count (it caps at 9+). The count updates in real time as you read or delete items.
Email Preferences
Some notifications also send email. Email behavior is configured in a few places:
Per-Alert Email Toggle
Each alert rule has its own Email notification toggle. See Alert Notifications for details on what email alerts include and how to configure them.
Product and Onboarding Emails
Settings → Email notifications → Product and onboarding emails (/dashboard/settings) holds a Send me product and onboarding emails switch. It covers the short getting-started series sent after you sign up, plus occasional product guidance, and turning it off stops the series straight away.
Every email in that series also carries an unsubscribe link in its footer. That link works without signing in, and it turns off both the onboarding series and the newsletter. Account, security, and billing emails are never affected.
Weekly Domain Reports
VitalSentinel can send a weekly email summary for each domain you have access to. Reports go out every Monday and include the past week's headline metrics.
Configure them in Settings → Email notifications → Weekly domain reports (/dashboard/settings):
- Open your account Settings.
- Scroll to the Email notifications card and find the Weekly domain reports section.
- Toggle each domain on or off individually.
The per-domain toggles appear once you have at least one domain; until then this section shows an empty state. Weekly reports are on by default for every domain (opt-out): a master toggle turns them all off, and each domain has its own switch. Preferences are per user, so team members can subscribe or unsubscribe independently.
Tips
- Use Unread as your inbox. Treat the Unread tab like an email inbox - read or dismiss items, then move on.
- Group by domain when triaging incidents. It's the fastest way to see which sites have multiple things going wrong at once.
- Keep weekly reports on for client domains. They double as a low-effort weekly check-in for your stakeholders.
